Completion of Ram Temple most iconic moment of my tenure

“We will reach all the places, and we have already reached.”

- HT Correspondent

This was the response of Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath on Saturday when he was asked about the movements by Hindu groups in Varanasi and Mathura to build temples, against the backdrop of the completion of the Ram Temple in Ayodhya.

At the 23rd Hindustan Times Leadership Summit, Adityanath - who became the first leader in Uttar Pradesh to serve a full-term and then win a second consecutive term when he secured a thumping majority in 2022 - also expanded on his development vision, called the completion of the Ram Temple an iconic moment of his tenure, and said his government would continue to defend the honour of women and dignity of citizens.

“Any society should feel a sense of pride in its heritage. And all these efforts have begun in that direction. We are grateful to the Honourable Supreme Court for its verdict after reviewing the facts and evidence presented before it. It is the biggest victory of Indian democracy that this decision of the Supreme Court was accepted by all,” Adityanath told Hindustan’s editor-in-chief Shashi Shekhar.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi performed a ceremony earlier this month to mark the completion of the Ram Temple. But Hindu groups in Varanasi and Mathura have also moved local courts asking for two mosques to be removed, arguing that they were built in the medieval ages by destroying ancient temples.